FT.com seeks fresh PR advice to compete in 'evolving media landscape'

The Financial Times is reviewing its agency setup to compete in an 'evolving media landscape'.

The account covers the newspaper’s FT.com website and is currently handled by Hotwire, which has declined to repitch.

An FT spokeswoman confirmed the pitch process was in the final stages and revealed that the new brief goes beyond Hotwire's remit.

She said: ‘This is a new agency brief that includes some of the elements previously covered by Hotwire, as well as new areas that reflect the growth of our business and the evolving media landscape.’

Hotwire won the account in 2007 and was briefed to handle the relaunch of the site after it changed from subscription-only to a ‘first click free’ model. This allowed web users to access FT stories via Google News and other partner websites without paying.

The new agency will target business, media and marketing press, as well as influential blogs to raise the profile of the site.

The appointment comes as FT.com moves to monetise visitor numbers to the website, unlike the majority of other national newspapers that use ABC figures to measure traffic.